A4 announces awardees of the 2026 What Can We Do? artist grant
Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) is pleased to announce the participants of What Can We Do? (WCWD?), an artist grant program offering $1,500 stipends to artists who use their creative skills to offer care to the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) New Yorker community. Over 25 artists and collaborators will present a total of 20 projects in an array of disciplines to bring aid, care, and cultural pride to the Asian New Yorker community with a focus on Chinatown, Manhattan; Flushing, Queens; and/or social justice projects focused on cross-cultural solidarity, and the support of NYC-based Palestinian creators and their communities, now through early June 2026.
The selected artists for 2026 include:
Hala Alyan • Wenjun Chen • Cecile Chong and Tao Leigh Goffe (Broken China) • Siyang Dai with Yejia Sun • Zoe Fuad (G-REBELS) • Devika Girish (Another World) • Maya Han • Kitty Hu with Dave Yim (Always Chinatown Film) • Samar Haddad King • Gigi Lin • Qiqing Lin • Camille Luong with Pepi Ng • Angelique Molina and Kathleen Villanueva (The Y. Orosa Literary Society) • Nadine Nelson • Nikita Shah • Nadia Tahoun • Ko Tanaka with Lalit Sritara • TD Tso • Ruby Wang • Spica Wobbe with Abby Man-Yee Chan
“We have now funded in excess of 100 projects since starting the What Can We Do? artist grant program in 2022,” says Lisa Gold, executive director of A4. “We are so grateful to all of our funders who ensure that we are able to offer this support to the AAPI community year after year, but we are especially grateful to Council Members Christopher Marte and Sandra Ung who had the foresight to support this program early on, ensuring their communities were included in this inspiring example of how the arts can make a such positive impact.”
The WCWD? program was created in 2022 in response to the alarming increase in anti-Asian hate and violence during the pandemic that has caused many people to experience grief, anxiety, and fear. WCWD? not only empowers artists who may themselves feel helpless against the swelling tide of anti-Asian and anti-Arab sentiment against the AAPI community, but also gives them a chance to find their place in the ecosystem of care through their talents and community connections while creating a circle of resilience.
The artists’ projects range in scope, discipline, and location. Examples include:
• Broken China (Tao Leigh Goffe & Cecile Chong) will lead an interactive program in collaboration with the Boys Club of New York in Flushing to invite young boys to explore Afro-Asian-Latine ideas of masculinity through film, dialogue, calligraphy, music, and more.
• The Y. Orosa Literary Society (Angelique Molina and Kathleen Villanueva) will host nine events over five months to build cross-cultural solidarities in Chinatown, Manhattan. Monthly kwentuhan (community conversations) and likhaan (book discussions) will address issues affecting communities and share resources.
• Artist Nikita Shah will offer workshops in which participants create story-cloths using Kalamkari: a 3,000-year-old craft with bamboo pens and natural dyes, alongside domestic embroidery traditions of Gujarat and Sindh
As part of the program, A4 supports community organizations by matching artists with them, thus offering the ability to increase their programming to constituents. Our partners this year include Chatham Square Public Library, University Settlement, Hamilton-Madison House, Glow Cultural Center, Queens Botanical Garden, and YWCA Queens.
For a complete list of projects with dates and locations, or to learn more about the artists and the WCWD? program, visit A4’s website.
This program is presented by Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) and is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Special thanks to Council Members Christopher Marte and Sandra Ung. Programs serving cross-cultural solidarity and the Palestinian community are funded through a grant from the Ford Foundation for Social Justice.
